Fort Point (Maine Justice Book 2)

by Davis, Susan Page

  “Are you sick of me?” he asked.

  “Never. Well, Beth might be.”

  *****

  Jennifer and Beth were folding laundry in the living room when he arrived, and Jennifer hurried to let him in.

  He kissed her in the doorway.

  “I put the cake order in with Mrs. Lundquist, for two hundred people, and pink roses on top.”

  “Great.”

  She looked up at him through her lashes, suddenly self-conscious. “Are you sure about the flowers? Because we should order them soon.”

  “Well, yeah, if you like the idea.”

  “I love it. The girls can have pink roses and greenery, and I’ll have pink and white. It just surprised me that you came out with it so decisively at the bakery.”

  He shrugged. “Sometimes I think of things. It hit me all of sudden how beautiful you would be carrying those.”

  Beth smiled. “I think it’s cookie time.” She headed for the kitchen.

  Harvey moved in closer to Jennifer. “She’s my kind of chaperone.”

  She folded a hand towel precisely and looked up with anticipation. He bent down and kissed her. All of the day’s headaches faded.

  She heard Beth at the kitchen door and broke the embrace, reaching for another towel, but smiling at him.

  “Here we go, chocolate chip cookies and milk,” Beth said.

  “So, you think a white rosebud with a fern behind it is okay for the boutonnieres?” Jennifer asked.

  Harvey winked at her. “Terrific.” He scooped up two cookies. “You girls are feeding me too well. I think I’d better kick in on the grocery bill.”

  “You need to eat,” Jennifer said. He was too thin, since he’d been in the hospital. His on-the-job injury the previous month had given her a scare, and his health was always a concern of hers now, although he didn’t seem worried about it. “Did you ask Carl when you can start running again?”

  “He said I’m good to go. I’d have run yesterday if Eddie and I hadn’t gotten called in early on a minor crisis at the airport.”

  “Don’t rush it,” It was true he was in great shape for a man his age. Still, he was alive only because of the Kevlar vest and God’s mercy. Jennifer blinked back the tears that formed at the memory. Harvey was watching her keenly, and she knew that if Beth hadn’t been in the room, she’d have been back in his comforting arms.

  “On the news, there were divers looking for evidence in your case,” Beth said.

  Harvey swung her way. “Did they say if they found anything?”

  “No.”

  “Good.” He reached into his pocket. “Jenny, here’s that list of hotels you wanted. I put down a range of price, but stayed within a couple miles of the church.”

  She took it and glanced at the list. “Great. Thanks.”

  “I was hoping we could go down to New Hampshire, so you could meet my sisters before the wedding,” he said, “but that was before Martin Blake left this earth. I don’t see how we can fit it in now.”

  “I wish we could. But Leeanne wants to come down this weekend.” Leeanne was the younger of her two sisters, and since Jennifer had moved away from home, she never got much time with Leeanne and Abby.

  “Just have her come down with Jeff tomorrow,” Harvey said.

  “Well, I have to work all day.”

  “I’ll be off Thursday afternoon and Friday,” Beth said. “She can stay with me.”

  Jennifer eyed her doubtfully. “Oh, Beth, you need a break.”

  “This might work,” Harvey said. “Eddie told me Sarah can’t go to Fort Point with us. Have Leeanne come tomorrow and stay over the weekend. We’ll take her with us on Saturday and drive her home afterward.”

  “You really want to do that?” Jennifer wasn’t convinced he wanted her kid sister tagging along, or the extra miles after the outing.

  “Sure. There won’t be another chance for Leeanne to visit before the wedding, will there?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “So, do it this weekend.” Harvey seemed sincere about it.

  “Okay.”

  Beth said, “You two need some fresh air. Go walk around the park or something.”

  “Sounds good.” Harvey’s eyes pleaded, even though Jennifer knew he was exhausted.

  She got a light sweater, and they went out into cool air. The sky was overcast. Harvey grabbed his sweatshirt from his Explorer.

  “It’s sweet of you to say Leeanne can go with us Saturday.”

  “I love your family. It will be a good chance to get to know her better.” He put his arm around her, and she slipped her arm around his waist. It felt daring, but she knew he was pleased.

  The park wasn’t exactly private, but the sun was going down and kids were pointing their bikes toward home. He guided her lazily toward a large stand of pine trees, and her stomach fluttered. He’d scouted a secluded spot where he could really kiss her.

  “I miss living in the country,” she said softly.

  “Maybe we should look for a house outside of town.”

  “Then you’d have to commute, and you’d lose your time with Eddie.”

  He sighed. “I guess things are going to change, whether we like it or not.”

  Jennifer looked forward to the changes eagerly, but she realized Harvey took his time adjusting to new things in his personal life.

  She couldn’t help running down her mental wedding-prep checklist. “I forgot to call the real estate agent.”

  “You can’t remember everything.”

  “But we need a place when we get back from … wherever.”

  “There’s time.”

  “Where are we going, anyway?”

  “How do you feel about Paris?”

  She caught her breath. “I thought you hated Paris.”

  “Well, I thought you might like it.”

  “No, I’d know you were wishing you were someplace else.”

  “You’re probably right. I have another place in mind.”

  “You’re not going to tell me, are you?” Her family had made forays into Canada. Other than that, she had never left the country, but she supposed anyplace would be an adventure with Harvey.

  “Is there one place you’ve always wanted to go?” he asked. “Someplace you’d really like to see, but it seemed out of reach?”

  “Anyplace, honey.”

  “Okay, then.”

  She smiled. “But I wish I could read your mind.”

  “Do you know what I’m thinking right now?” He walked her toward the pines.

  “Let me guess.” She stopped in the shadow of the trees and turned to face him. “You’re thinking …” She stepped closer and slid her hands up around his neck.

  “That’s it,” he said and kissed her.

  On the way back to the house, she wheedled, “Give me a hint.”

  “How about hula girls and leis?” he asked, his arm tight around her waist.

  “Hmm. I don’t need a passport for Hawaii. You’ve got something up your sleeve, haven’t you?” She leaned away so she could see his face, but he just smiled.

  *****

  In the morning, Harvey and Eddie ran their route in sweatshirts. The clouds were thick and dark. A sharp pain started beneath Harvey’s right shoulder blade, and he couldn’t do the whole run, so they walked the last half mile.

  “You’ll be okay in a couple of weeks,” said Eddie. “It takes time to get it back.”

  Harvey was breathing fairly hard, and his side ached. Carl had said he was all right, but he thought maybe he’d get him to listen to his lung when he and Jennifer went to his house for dinner, just to be sure.

  “So, Sarah’s not going to the fort.”

  “No, she’d already told Cheryl she’d do something with her.” Eddie kicked at a dandelion that had grown up in a crack in the sidewalk.

  “Well, Jennifer’s sister Leeanne is coming down with Jeff tonight. We thought we’d keep her over and take her with us Saturday, then drop her off at h
ome.”

  “Okay,” said Eddie.

  “You sure? I mean, it’s not like a date for you or anything. She’s young.”

  “How young?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe 20. She’s in college. Going to be a sophomore, I think. Or maybe a junior.”

  “Where’s she going?”

  “UMF. She goes home weekends. She’s a nice girl, Eddie.” Harvey wasn’t exactly warning him, just setting boundaries. He hadn’t considered how Leeanne might react. Eddie was unquestionably handsome and talked a good line with girls. He could barely keep track of the women he’d dated. He seemed to enjoy being single, but lately Harvey thought he showed signs of being ready to settle down. Sarah had sobered him a little.

  Leeanne, on the other hand, could use some laughter. She was small-boned and pretty, with dark hair and blue eyes and had a shyness, like Jennifer, that was appealing, but might get in the way of a friendship. The middle sister, Abby, was more outgoing. Leeanne, from the little Harvey had seen of her, was just plain sweet, but slightly introverted. Maybe putting her and Eddie together for a whole day wasn’t such a great idea.

  “Eddie,” he said, “Leeanne is … well, she’s Jenny’s sister.”

  “So?”

  “Please don’t try to start anything with her.”

  His eyes opened wide. “Am I so awful?”

  “No. You’re my best friend.”

  “So, Jennifer told you to warn me off, or what?”

  “No. Jennifer loves you, too. I’m just telling you. It doesn’t seem like the best match. Leeanne is too young.”

  “You should talk.”

  “Oh, come on, Eddie. I shouldn’t have said anything. I know you wouldn’t misbehave.” Not when it was important, anyway.

  “Does she look like Jennifer?” Eddie asked.

  “Not really.”

  “Oh. Is she homely?”

  “Not at all.”

  “So, what are you saying?”

  “There’s more than one kind of beauty.”

  After a moment, Eddie said, “Okay.”

  They split up to get ready for work. Harvey wished he’d kept his mouth shut and just let things take their course, or not told Jennifer to ask Leeanne to come down. Now Eddie thought he didn’t trust him. Well, maybe he didn’t. In the five years he’d known Eddie, he’d been kind of wild. Even so, he didn’t want bad feelings between them.

  On the way to the police station, they hashed over what they needed to do that morning. At the top of Harvey’s list was getting an interview with Mr. and Mrs. Murphy and other reunion guests they hadn’t already reached. He also needed to touch base with the medical examiner about the autopsy report. Harvey had expected an update on Tuesday, but it hadn’t arrived.

  He checked the e-mail and crime updates when he got to his desk. The flag icon appeared in the corner of his computer screen. He opened the message and sat still, staring at it.

  Chapter 5

  Wednesday, June 23

  Harvey read the update again. Unattended drowning, body found 8:05 a.m. on north shore of Islesboro, identified as Luke Frederick, 52, of Portland. Taken to Augusta for autopsy.

  He took out the reunion guest list. Luke M. Frederick, Shore Road, Portland.

  “Eddie, look at this. I just got a flag on one of the reunion guests. He was found drowned on Islesboro this morning.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Nope. Luke Frederick. I’ll call the M.E. and see what I can find out about it. You call the Islesboro P.D.”

  Eddie immediately started clicking on his computer keyboard to get the phone number. Harvey tried the M.E.’s office in Augusta, but got a busy signal.

  “This is really weird,” said Eddie, after his phone call.

  “How?”

  “Well, Frederick was divorced. His 30-year-old son was living with him. The son, Ben, reported him missing to this department Monday morning.”

  Harvey frowned. “That was before I flagged the names. Did Islesboro P.D. interview him?”

  “Yes, once the body was found. I guess the cops downstairs told him Monday that his father was an adult, and they weren’t getting too upset about him being missing yet.”

  “But his father went to the reunion Sunday.”

  “Right,” Eddie said. “Ben Frederick knew that was where he was going. But his father never came home.”

  “Two guys from the reunion found in the water within 48 hours,” Harvey said. “Sounds like Islesboro will be calling all the same people we call, asking when they last saw Frederick, and what he did at the reunion. Maybe we’d better coordinate this thing.”

  Harvey called Islesboro and had a ten-minute conversation with Chief Philson. The upshot was, Philson’s case seemed to be a straight drowning, and Harvey’s was a homicide. Philson had not tried to get a reunion guest list. He was trying to establish whether or not anyone had seen Frederick after the reunion, from Sunday evening until Wednesday morning, when the body was found.

  “Do you know how long he’d been dead?” Harvey asked.

  “No, we don’t have the autopsy report yet,” Philson replied.

  They agreed to keep each other posted, but it seemed Harvey was on his own, unless the M.E. gave Philson reason to believe Frederick’s death was not accidental.

  The flag appeared on his computer screen again. He opened it and hollered to Eddie to come look. Luke Frederick’s car had been found abandoned in the parking lot at Fort Point State Park.

  Eddie’s eyes flared. “Why didn’t they find it two days ago?”

  Harvey called Augusta and got a somewhat unsatisfactory answer, which he relayed to Eddie.

  “They don’t have Parks and Recreation people on duty all the time. The state budget’s tight. On Sunday and Monday, they didn’t even have anyone there to take money from people going into the park.”

  “So how did they find the car?”

  “An employee went in yesterday morning and noticed a car in the parking lot. She thought it was just an early nature lover. She didn’t notice whether it was there when she went off duty, but this morning it was there again, or still there. She heard about the drowning on the radio and called the state police. They ran the plate number and found it was Frederick’s.”

  “They should have checked the park Monday morning, when his son reported him missing,” said Eddie.

  “Forty-eight hours for a missing adult. Can’t investigate every little thing.”

  “They are so afraid to waste a buck or two.”

  “Sounds to me like Frederick never left the reunion,” Harvey said.

  Eddie sighed. “We haven’t found anyone who saw him eat lunch there.”

  “Right.” So far, Harvey had no explanation. “We’ve got to go back over the list of people who were there. Ask the ones we talked to earlier if they saw Frederick, and pinpoint the last time anyone saw him.”

  “But we’re investigating Blake’s death, not Frederick’s.”

  “If Islesboro won’t investigate, we’ve got to,” Harvey said. “There’s some connection there.”

  “The reunion. Anything else?”

  “I dunno.” Harvey ran a hand through his hair. “I just don’t know.”

  Eddie offered to call the medical examiner’s office again, and Harvey dialed the Murphy home. He talked to the congressman’s wife, Alison, for a few minutes first. She was also a Blake classmate. She and her husband had sat at the Blakes’ table during the picnic.

  “I don’t think I saw Luke Frederick that day,” she said, “but I’m not positive.”

  When David Murphy finally came on the line, he was curt. Yes, he’d heard about Martin. Terrible thing. Did the police have any leads? The implication was that they’d better have. He planned to attend the funeral. Yes, he’d been at the reunion. He’d talked to Martin Blake some. They’d discussed politics, and he’d asked Martin to consider endorsing him during next year’s campaign. For what? Big pause. He hadn’t made his announcement yet, and w
asn’t at liberty to discuss it.

  “Mr. Murphy, did you see Luke Frederick at the reunion?” Harvey asked.

  “I don’t think I did.”

  “What time did you arrive?”

  “Oh, it was eleven-thirty at least. I couldn’t get away in the morning.”

  “So you never saw Luke Frederick on Sunday?”

  “I don’t recall. There were a lot of people there. But Luke and I were never close. He might have been there.”

  “Did you see a blue Chevy Cavalier in the parking lot at Fort Point?”

  “Not that I recall.”

  “Sir, could I make an appointment with you for tomorrow? I’d like to talk to you and Mrs. Murphy after the funeral.”

  “I’m very busy,” Murphy said.

  “I’m sure that’s true, but so am I. Could you come to the police station afterward?”

  “Well, I don’t—”

  “It’s important, sir.” Harvey wasn’t sure why he was pushing him so hard, but something didn’t feel right. “If you’d rather I went to your office downtown—”

  “No, I don’t want cops showing up there.”

  “You do want to see this case solved quickly, don’t you?”

  “Of course.”

  He gave in, and Harvey instructed him on finding his office. When he hung up, he felt battered. The bout was a draw, but he’d scheduled the rematch.

  “Eddie, we’ve got to be at that funeral. A lot of the classmates will be there. The fact that they just saw him Sunday will make it more poignant to them, and they won’t want to miss it.”

  “What do we do? Interview all the mourners?”

  “No, I want to concentrate on people who were at the reunion. We can get around to the ones who live in town eventually, but we need to see the ones who are coming from away while they’re here.”

  “Don’t tell me. We’ve got to call them all again and tell them to come here after the funeral.”

  “I hate to say it, but we’d better. A lot of them will be in town tomorrow. We’ve got to take advantage of it.”

  He requisitioned Nate and Tony as if they were paper clips and put them on phones in the Priority Unit office. Pete Bearse and Arnie Fowler, the other two detectives in the unit, were working on another assignment with Mike and were out of the office, so he put Nate and Tony at their desks.